I'm a little cautious about these all-in-one set top boxes that game companies are trying to produce. Sure, the main focus is still games, but here you have Dreamcast shipping with a modem, soon to get a zip drive, and PS2 playing DVD movies and having USB and Firewire support. The line between consoles and PC's seems to be blurring.
In fact, I think it always has. Just about everyt major game system at some point touted that they'd have a keyboard and a disk drive to make them more "computer like". Usually these things never shipped and when they did (SNES mouse for example) they failed miserably. The difference today is that a lot of these components are shipping WITH the system themselves, putting an emphasis on multi-use machines from the get-go.
But are consumers ready to adopt this? To me this is such a big gamble, especially with so many dismal failures in the past (3DO and CD-I come to mind), but I think now is the better time to take such a risk. Some people are more comfortable with the idea of surfing the web on their TV's (ala WebTV), so this isn't a new idea to most people. And most people have heard of DVD and know it's the way movies will go someday. However a lot of people (generally speaking) don't have WebTV or a DVD player. A lot more people (again, generally speaking) play games, and to get these options in a system that usually sells below cost (what a bargain!) is a dream come true.
The real test will be how companies like Sony and Sega market their machines after they catch on. Will they still be "game" machines, or will they be the "magic black (or offwhite) box" that sits in your entertainment stand and does it all? How they market this stage (along with how easy these things are to use) will be the difference in whether they get everyone to buy a system, or just those who want games. If anyone wins this race at all it'll be a huge marketing coup. If they all fail, it may be the end of the Set-Top box concept as we know it.
I love the name of MTV's shows. True Life? This show was not true life. It was just a bunch of script kiddie crackers (I wish someone would use these terms correctly), and MTV made them out to look like the notorious underground l0pht or something. It was basically a joke. It was as true life as the Real World is the real world.
Having lived in the ruralest of rural Wisconsin all my life, I can tell you this is of great relief to farmers everywhere. This is especially true for the small farmer. Farming is one of the toughest proffesions I can think of, and it's so hard to make money, yet it's probably the most important occupation on the planet.
Because of the low pofits involved, most farms today have to be huge (1000+ acres) to survive. It's very hard to maintain land of that size. And the smaller ones are having a hard time competing, and having a seed like this one would probably wipe them out (along with all those farmers in 3rd world countries, where this would be even more of a problem).
I don't think people really realize how bad the world farming situation is. The world population is growing exponetialy, while farm land is being decreased and about the same rate. I see this all the time when I visit a big city. Urban sprawl is a real threat to farmers and their land. The only reason we've been able to feed the world (and in most places we still can't) is because of genetic engineering of plants, to create larger yields on the same amount of land. For Monsanto to try to gain a few bucks and in the process wipe out the poorer farmers is just plain unethical in my book. Things like this will only hurt everyone in the end. I'm just glad they're backing down.
I found this an interresting read because it reminds me of the way things have been with Mac fanatics. The number one goal was to kill Microsoft. Anything even related to MS was (and is) torn apart, and burned at the stake. Why? Because Mac fanatics who don't get the real picture want there OS to be "number 1", because they feel it's "better". This is why Bill Gates was booed when he showed up on the screen at MacWorld a year or two back. Granted, I have my own opinions on which OS I prefer (MacOS for applications, Linux for programming), but I don't see how watching Microsoft die off is going to make my prefered OS better. If that were to happen, then in the end I'd be just like the person I once hated.
I also think people fail to realize what it means to be number one. It means you're the big dog, you're the one everyone "cool" hates (and the ones the "lamers" love). The saddest thing about this whole thing is that those people who really feel that Linux will be the demise of Microsoft are going to be the same ones who ridicule Linux when it does, and hop on some less popular-yet-"cool" OS's bandwagon.
Peace to all those who just want a good, stable, dependable, fun, easy to use operating system, regardless of who makes it.
Is there anything you've ever said that, taken out of context, would make you look bad?
Certainly, and you raise a very good point. The media does a wonderful job of taking things out of context, if only for ratings and yellow journalism. However, if you are a generally honest person, something that has been taken out of context can usually be rebutted.
The point I was trying to make was that even if the media was after me, and were taking everything I said out of context, *I* would know that I was being honest, and doing the right thing, and to me, that's all that matters. I'd rather go to the grave with a little honor and dignity for myself and have the rest of the world hate me, than trying to cover all my tracks and being a liar just so everyone will love me.
They need to hook this puppy (or cat as it were) to a webcam. Then I could replace the JenniCam SlashBox with with CatCam! Live furball hacking all day!;)
I guess I feel that if someone is deleting things they've said, for fear that they may be cast in a bad light, then they probably shouldn't have said them in the first place. This is why I don't mind if people were to find out what I posted or sent to someone, because frankly, I have nothing to hide. If he deleted them for security reasons that's one thing, but to do it to cover your tracks and look innocent on something is a bit shady. Plus, I'd probably respect the guy more if he was upfront and honest.
With the speeds of processors getting faster and faster, we're going to reach a problem with they hit 900 mHZ. Your processor will interfere with your Cordless phone.
Hmm...so how come when I was in college, and everyone on the floor had 900Mhz phones, I couldn't tap into their conversation? Where was my interference? And why didn't my 25Mhz Mac screw up my 25Mhz cordless way back in the day? Hmm...Ponderous.
But this is not so. I have been able to open ports 22, 80 and 21 for my various serices. But, everytime they change your ip. You have to telnet into your router and change the NAT tables.
This is true if you're using an old version of the CBOS. If you get v2.2.0 then you can set wildcards. Meaning, open whatever ports you want, and when you IP changes, the ports on the router change with it. Very cool. Also, if you want added security, DISABLE TELNET. It's very simple and that way people can't log into your router and screw with it. I actually like the PPP mode now that CBOS 2.2.0 is out. Everything works perfectly.
Most of what I know I taught myself either by reading books or by tinkering around. There wasn't much human interaction in that.
This may be true, but human interaction isn't only better because it's easier to learn (and ask questions), it's better because it teaches you how to relate with people in general. In reality, this is one of the most important traits to learn. It's not just the actual "x+y=z" stuff that's important, it's the social interaction that goes on during that process. I've seen a lot of people NOT hired where I work simply because they didn't seem to have the right social skills, and were too reserved, yet they had amazing technical skills. Being a boy genious isn't going to get you anywhere if you can't explain what it is you're doing and work together with someone else.
I've got to admit I'm having a hard time considering machines as anything other than machines.
I used to think this way, that is, until I saw the movie Ghost in the Shell. That movie really made me think about what we consiter to be "living" or "sentient". People can argue that a truely inteligent machine is just some program doing some computations and nothing more, but how different is that from how humans work? We use electrical impulses for our brains, similar to electrical impulses (1's and 0's) in computers. We store information in our brain (RAM, Hard Drive), we require energy to survive (Electricity), we can traverse different areas of the world (Networks, Internet). While it may be a little far fetched, if you consider what is meant by "living" (which there is no real definition) then the line becomes blurred. Hell, wasn't it Douglas Adam's who wrote about humans being the ultimate "computer" to figure out the question to the ultimate answer of the universe? (How's that for thinking on the edge?)
With that said, the interresting thing about this is the fact that we as humans must create (give birth to) these machines. If in fact they do end up taking over the world, or whatever the doomsdayers say, it will be because of us. It never ceases to amaze me how humans are the most intelligent of all creatures, yet that intelligence could end up whiping the entire species out (Nuclear weapons are a good example of this already).
I don't see these things happening soon however, not in my kids lifetime. Maybe close to when they get old and have grandkids, but I just don't see technology taking off that fast. As fast as technology increases, we always overshoot the future at least to some degree (ie 2001: A Space Oddessy).
I don't see political sites on the net changing the outcome of a presidential race, and there are a few reasons for this.
One is the amount of people on the net. While a lot, it's not the huge amount of people with TV.
Second are the amount of people who would actually go to the site. Unfortunatly, most voters are uniformed, and vote based on party or based on what they see and hear in normal every day activites. They're not ones to seek out information to make an informed decision.
For those of us that like to be educated about politicians and are tech savvy, there's a third problem. Political sites are just fluff. How many times do we argue on Slashdot about sites that make their product out to be the second coming? (ie "Those benchmarks don't mean anything, show us some REAL benchmarks!") Obviously, political sites are going to make the politician look like a saint and make their ideas out to be the universal problem solvers. Most of us are smart enough to see through that crap.
Thus, I think the age old notion of seeing a politician in person, and seeing them debate and answer hard questions is really the best way to get your information, and then possibly go to the website to fill out the online form for a donation. It won't change politics as we know it, it'll simply be a different (albiet biased) source of information.
$370 US. That's a lot of money for a game system. Can you think of any other game systems for that much that survived?
Well, I believe the Atari 2600 was up there when it came out (at least $300 if I remember). And with inflation added into the picture, it almost certainly was over $370.
What people forget about new consoles is that prices have stayed about the same (or gone down) since the early 80's, and inflation has gone up. This is why that Dreamcast you baught really is a steal at $199, and why that Nintendo you baught in '85 with ROB the robot acctually cost you more than the PS2 will.
It will be proportionally less here...I think $200-$250 is the anticipated price.
I think a more reasonable estimate is $349.99. Why? Because you can't sell a system for $370 in Japan and then bring it to the US for $200. It's called "dumping" and it's illegal. The Japanese are known to gleefully pay a lot of money for consoles while American folk are more frugal. Because of this, laws have been set up (for all products) that do not allow you to take advantage of countries where high price isn't a big issue (such as Japan). Thus, prices in all countries have to be reasonably similar. Meaning it doesn't have to be $370 when it comes out in America, but it should be close, and lowering the price by $150 is setting off some huge red flags, and would be a no-no.
Ok, I understand you frustration, and I also understand the importance of open platforms, but lets be realistic here. Game consoles are closed systems for a reason. Do you know how many games actually get turned down every year and never see the light of day? Can you imagine what sorts of crap Sony would have to go through to find something that is just slightly good? The fact is, Sony (and Nintendo and Sega) can't just release anything and eveything on their system. Gamers have come to expect that every game works properly and takes advantage of the system as much as possible. Having some random person hack together some software and sell it is not a good marketing decision. It ruins their QA, and undermines what constomers expect and want. In essense, consoles and PC's are run by different sets of rules for a reason, and that's the way it should be.
I recently took a part time "position" to make some extra money on the side, helping a startup company with some badly needed design work. It's just nights and weekends, but it's flexible, I work when I want, and mostly can work from home. This is great because I also have a full time job during the day where I am a real employee, so it does not interfere. When setting up this extra opportunity, my choices were to be a contract worker or an employee of the company. This being my first time with this sort of thing, I asked, "What's the difference"? Basically the only difference is that I'd have the taxes taken out of my checks, so that I wouldn't have to worry about the IRS and a tax nightmare later. Pay was the same either way, there are no benefits (it's part-time) and while I am considered an "employee" of the company, the job is really no different than being a contractor with taxes taken out of your check. So which one am I? Is this a grey area?
Has anyone noticed that Apple seems to be "listening" these days? Seems to me that now, whenever a great number of people want a certain thing, Apple responds. Examples:
Build a cheap Mac for once: iMac
Build a cheep notebook for once: iBook
You're not an open source company!: Darwin
Your OS isn't "modern": OS X
Man, flat panel displays are cool: Cinema Display
I wanna network my house, but I don't want cords everywhere!: Airport
Beige is boring: iMac colors
Those iMac colors are too fruity! I want graphite!: Graphite G4 and iMac II
When I look back just a couple years, it's amazing how far this company has come. I think it's response to the current state of computing in all areas of society (and clever marketing) has really been what's turned Apple around. I just hope they stay with this mindset...
Ok, so I own a G3, have always used Macs, and was interested in reading this article. But what the hell was your point? That somehow the G4 is the "second coming" of Apple? I think you're jumping the gun here. While the G4 is incredibly cool, this box isn't going to become the supreme power in the universe. It's just a computer (and a pretty fast one at that), and something else will come along in a couple months that claims to be faster than the G4. Are you going to then write an article about that box claiming it's the second coming for [insert company here]?
I can't see this as being anything but vaporware. From the other sites I've been reading on this, it's sounds as if X-Box (the system we're all talking about here) is just one of many console ideas Microsoft has come up with for possible introduction into the home. I doubt they could release something that directly competes with Dreamcast when they are partnering with Sega. Thus, it seems this is one of those set top, do everything, boxes that will never see the light of day. Anyone recall that Pippin box that Apple and Bandai were going to bring out a year or two ago? I'll bet $50 that X-Box turns out to be a similar product, that will unfortunatly have a similar demise.
With that said, let's look at the flip side of this...if this thing does come out, do you think Microsoft is actually gonna be able to compete with Sega, Sony and Nintendo? I doubut it. First of all, where are the games? What 3rd party developers are going to write for the system? I don't care how much money MS has, they aren't gonna take away Square from Sony, or Mario from Nintendo, or all those arcade games away from Sega. But hey, I guess it's not that bad, at least there will be a really good console version of Age of Empires!;)
I have my threshold set to 2. Why? Because lately, I don't have time to wade through 300 posts, especially the toll ones, or those of us who are registered who respond to the trolls' nonsense. I also have less time to read slashdot than before. For those of us on the move, reading the top 25 posts out of 300 does wonders. You always get the best comments out of whatever topic interests you.
With that said, I think Rob has done well with his decision. I didn't read the thread that made him do this (yet) but I did read one about a week or two back that was just as bad (somebody saying Windows was the best, etc, etc over and over). And I only saw that because someone who had score of 2 had said something about all the off topic posts. I'm glad we all have a choice to view what we want, but when people just keep posting crap, over and over, it just reminds me of when Usenet went to shit way back when.
We all have to remember though, this is Rob's site, he can be as hard or easy on anyone as he wants, and he should have that right. He's the one who's put in the hours and hours of hard work for all of us. And I for one would like to thank him for making the net a better place, regardless of how many "bad apples" are out there.
Having spent the last 22 years in Green Bay I must say that this kid should be put away. He's ruining our city's reputation as technically illiterate folk who only drink beer, eat brats, and watch anything and everything Packer related.
Seriously though, this surprised me when I heard this on the news. We're not a very technical town at all, and I'm sure now half the population of Green Bay (both of them) will be all worried that this kid (or someone else) is gonna hack into their computer while they're tying in Word. The ISP's in Green Bay don't help the cause any either. But hey, at least we have our Packers!
It's like this with anything. There sure are a lot more visits to Radio Shack stores than Mom & Pop's Electronics. As brands grow online, it should have the same effect as the Wal-Mart's and Old Navy's of the world. The little man will be crushed. This trend also reaches into news and personal sites. For example, some people have the attitude, "Slashdot has it all, why go anywhere else?" It would be hard for someone like me, for instance, to compete with the popularity of this site. Personal sites like The Fray that are popular could almost be considered the "upper class" of people on the web, where as Geocities could be considered the Internet Ghetto. I think we're seeing the internet take on a life of it's own, and because it has, it's playing by the same rules we play by in real life.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a little cautious about these all-in-one set top boxes that game companies are trying to produce. Sure, the main focus is still games, but here you have Dreamcast shipping with a modem, soon to get a zip drive, and PS2 playing DVD movies and having USB and Firewire support. The line between consoles and PC's seems to be blurring.
In fact, I think it always has. Just about everyt major game system at some point touted that they'd have a keyboard and a disk drive to make them more "computer like". Usually these things never shipped and when they did (SNES mouse for example) they failed miserably. The difference today is that a lot of these components are shipping WITH the system themselves, putting an emphasis on multi-use machines from the get-go.
But are consumers ready to adopt this? To me this is such a big gamble, especially with so many dismal failures in the past (3DO and CD-I come to mind), but I think now is the better time to take such a risk. Some people are more comfortable with the idea of surfing the web on their TV's (ala WebTV), so this isn't a new idea to most people. And most people have heard of DVD and know it's the way movies will go someday. However a lot of people (generally speaking) don't have WebTV or a DVD player. A lot more people (again, generally speaking) play games, and to get these options in a system that usually sells below cost (what a bargain!) is a dream come true.
The real test will be how companies like Sony and Sega market their machines after they catch on. Will they still be "game" machines, or will they be the "magic black (or offwhite) box" that sits in your entertainment stand and does it all? How they market this stage (along with how easy these things are to use) will be the difference in whether they get everyone to buy a system, or just those who want games. If anyone wins this race at all it'll be a huge marketing coup. If they all fail, it may be the end of the Set-Top box concept as we know it.
I love the name of MTV's shows. True Life? This show was not true life. It was just a bunch of script kiddie crackers (I wish someone would use these terms correctly), and MTV made them out to look like the notorious underground l0pht or something. It was basically a joke. It was as true life as the Real World is the real world.
Having lived in the ruralest of rural Wisconsin all my life, I can tell you this is of great relief to farmers everywhere. This is especially true for the small farmer. Farming is one of the toughest proffesions I can think of, and it's so hard to make money, yet it's probably the most important occupation on the planet.
Because of the low pofits involved, most farms today have to be huge (1000+ acres) to survive. It's very hard to maintain land of that size. And the smaller ones are having a hard time competing, and having a seed like this one would probably wipe them out (along with all those farmers in 3rd world countries, where this would be even more of a problem).
I don't think people really realize how bad the world farming situation is. The world population is growing exponetialy, while farm land is being decreased and about the same rate. I see this all the time when I visit a big city. Urban sprawl is a real threat to farmers and their land. The only reason we've been able to feed the world (and in most places we still can't) is because of genetic engineering of plants, to create larger yields on the same amount of land. For Monsanto to try to gain a few bucks and in the process wipe out the poorer farmers is just plain unethical in my book. Things like this will only hurt everyone in the end. I'm just glad they're backing down.
My $6million question:
Is there life after gaming? And if so, what would it be for you?
I found this an interresting read because it reminds me of the way things have been with Mac fanatics. The number one goal was to kill Microsoft. Anything even related to MS was (and is) torn apart, and burned at the stake. Why? Because Mac fanatics who don't get the real picture want there OS to be "number 1", because they feel it's "better". This is why Bill Gates was booed when he showed up on the screen at MacWorld a year or two back. Granted, I have my own opinions on which OS I prefer (MacOS for applications, Linux for programming), but I don't see how watching Microsoft die off is going to make my prefered OS better. If that were to happen, then in the end I'd be just like the person I once hated.
I also think people fail to realize what it means to be number one. It means you're the big dog, you're the one everyone "cool" hates (and the ones the "lamers" love). The saddest thing about this whole thing is that those people who really feel that Linux will be the demise of Microsoft are going to be the same ones who ridicule Linux when it does, and hop on some less popular-yet-"cool" OS's bandwagon.
Peace to all those who just want a good, stable, dependable, fun, easy to use operating system, regardless of who makes it.
Is there anything you've ever said that, taken out of context, would make you look bad?
Certainly, and you raise a very good point. The media does a wonderful job of taking things out of context, if only for ratings and yellow journalism. However, if you are a generally honest person, something that has been taken out of context can usually be rebutted.
The point I was trying to make was that even if the media was after me, and were taking everything I said out of context, *I* would know that I was being honest, and doing the right thing, and to me, that's all that matters. I'd rather go to the grave with a little honor and dignity for myself and have the rest of the world hate me, than trying to cover all my tracks and being a liar just so everyone will love me.
They need to hook this puppy (or cat as it were) to a webcam. Then I could replace the JenniCam SlashBox with with CatCam! Live furball hacking all day! ;)
I guess I feel that if someone is deleting things they've said, for fear that they may be cast in a bad light, then they probably shouldn't have said them in the first place. This is why I don't mind if people were to find out what I posted or sent to someone, because frankly, I have nothing to hide. If he deleted them for security reasons that's one thing, but to do it to cover your tracks and look innocent on something is a bit shady. Plus, I'd probably respect the guy more if he was upfront and honest.
To see if a program will pass the Turing Test right away, just ask it some question with a lot of slang.
IE: "Hey, wussup, just wonderin if ya caught that NIN "pinion" vid on MTV yet? If not, check dat shit out cuz its PHAT!!"
I'd like to see what an intelligent program's response to that would be...
I predict that in the 21st century, some idiot is STILL going to proclaim they were the first post in every Slashdot article! ;)
With the speeds of processors getting faster and faster, we're going to reach a problem with they hit 900 mHZ. Your processor will interfere with your Cordless phone.
Hmm...so how come when I was in college, and everyone on the floor had 900Mhz phones, I couldn't tap into their conversation? Where was my interference? And why didn't my 25Mhz Mac screw up my 25Mhz cordless way back in the day? Hmm...Ponderous.
But this is not so. I have been able to open ports 22, 80 and 21 for my various serices. But, everytime they change your ip. You have to telnet into your router and change the NAT tables.
This is true if you're using an old version of the CBOS. If you get v2.2.0 then you can set wildcards. Meaning, open whatever ports you want, and when you IP changes, the ports on the router change with it. Very cool. Also, if you want added security, DISABLE TELNET. It's very simple and that way people can't log into your router and screw with it. I actually like the PPP mode now that CBOS 2.2.0 is out. Everything works perfectly.
Most of what I know I taught myself either by reading books or by tinkering around. There wasn't much human interaction in that.
This may be true, but human interaction isn't only better because it's easier to learn (and ask questions), it's better because it teaches you how to relate with people in general. In reality, this is one of the most important traits to learn. It's not just the actual "x+y=z" stuff that's important, it's the social interaction that goes on during that process. I've seen a lot of people NOT hired where I work simply because they didn't seem to have the right social skills, and were too reserved, yet they had amazing technical skills. Being a boy genious isn't going to get you anywhere if you can't explain what it is you're doing and work together with someone else.
I've got to admit I'm having a hard time considering machines as anything other than machines.
I used to think this way, that is, until I saw the movie Ghost in the Shell. That movie really made me think about what we consiter to be "living" or "sentient". People can argue that a truely inteligent machine is just some program doing some computations and nothing more, but how different is that from how humans work? We use electrical impulses for our brains, similar to electrical impulses (1's and 0's) in computers. We store information in our brain (RAM, Hard Drive), we require energy to survive (Electricity), we can traverse different areas of the world (Networks, Internet). While it may be a little far fetched, if you consider what is meant by "living" (which there is no real definition) then the line becomes blurred. Hell, wasn't it Douglas Adam's who wrote about humans being the ultimate "computer" to figure out the question to the ultimate answer of the universe? (How's that for thinking on the edge?)
With that said, the interresting thing about this is the fact that we as humans must create (give birth to) these machines. If in fact they do end up taking over the world, or whatever the doomsdayers say, it will be because of us. It never ceases to amaze me how humans are the most intelligent of all creatures, yet that intelligence could end up whiping the entire species out (Nuclear weapons are a good example of this already).
I don't see these things happening soon however, not in my kids lifetime. Maybe close to when they get old and have grandkids, but I just don't see technology taking off that fast. As fast as technology increases, we always overshoot the future at least to some degree (ie 2001: A Space Oddessy).
I don't see political sites on the net changing the outcome of a presidential race, and there are a few reasons for this.
One is the amount of people on the net. While a lot, it's not the huge amount of people with TV.
Second are the amount of people who would actually go to the site. Unfortunatly, most voters are uniformed, and vote based on party or based on what they see and hear in normal every day activites. They're not ones to seek out information to make an informed decision.
For those of us that like to be educated about politicians and are tech savvy, there's a third problem. Political sites are just fluff. How many times do we argue on Slashdot about sites that make their product out to be the second coming? (ie "Those benchmarks don't mean anything, show us some REAL benchmarks!") Obviously, political sites are going to make the politician look like a saint and make their ideas out to be the universal problem solvers. Most of us are smart enough to see through that crap.
Thus, I think the age old notion of seeing a politician in person, and seeing them debate and answer hard questions is really the best way to get your information, and then possibly go to the website to fill out the online form for a donation. It won't change politics as we know it, it'll simply be a different (albiet biased) source of information.
$370 US. That's a lot of money for a game system. Can you think of any other game systems for that much that survived?
Well, I believe the Atari 2600 was up there when it came out (at least $300 if I remember). And with inflation added into the picture, it almost certainly was over $370.
What people forget about new consoles is that prices have stayed about the same (or gone down) since the early 80's, and inflation has gone up. This is why that Dreamcast you baught really is a steal at $199, and why that Nintendo you baught in '85 with ROB the robot acctually cost you more than the PS2 will.
It will be proportionally less here...I think $200-$250 is the anticipated price.
I think a more reasonable estimate is $349.99. Why? Because you can't sell a system for $370 in Japan and then bring it to the US for $200. It's called "dumping" and it's illegal. The Japanese are known to gleefully pay a lot of money for consoles while American folk are more frugal. Because of this, laws have been set up (for all products) that do not allow you to take advantage of countries where high price isn't a big issue (such as Japan). Thus, prices in all countries have to be reasonably similar. Meaning it doesn't have to be $370 when it comes out in America, but it should be close, and lowering the price by $150 is setting off some huge red flags, and would be a no-no.
Ok, I understand you frustration, and I also understand the importance of open platforms, but lets be realistic here. Game consoles are closed systems for a reason. Do you know how many games actually get turned down every year and never see the light of day? Can you imagine what sorts of crap Sony would have to go through to find something that is just slightly good? The fact is, Sony (and Nintendo and Sega) can't just release anything and eveything on their system. Gamers have come to expect that every game works properly and takes advantage of the system as much as possible. Having some random person hack together some software and sell it is not a good marketing decision. It ruins their QA, and undermines what constomers expect and want. In essense, consoles and PC's are run by different sets of rules for a reason, and that's the way it should be.
I recently took a part time "position" to make some extra money on the side, helping a startup company with some badly needed design work. It's just nights and weekends, but it's flexible, I work when I want, and mostly can work from home. This is great because I also have a full time job during the day where I am a real employee, so it does not interfere. When setting up this extra opportunity, my choices were to be a contract worker or an employee of the company. This being my first time with this sort of thing, I asked, "What's the difference"? Basically the only difference is that I'd have the taxes taken out of my checks, so that I wouldn't have to worry about the IRS and a tax nightmare later. Pay was the same either way, there are no benefits (it's part-time) and while I am considered an "employee" of the company, the job is really no different than being a contractor with taxes taken out of your check. So which one am I? Is this a grey area?
Has anyone noticed that Apple seems to be "listening" these days? Seems to me that now, whenever a great number of people want a certain thing, Apple responds. Examples:
Build a cheap Mac for once: iMac
Build a cheep notebook for once: iBook
You're not an open source company!: Darwin
Your OS isn't "modern": OS X
Man, flat panel displays are cool: Cinema Display
I wanna network my house, but I don't want cords everywhere!: Airport
Beige is boring: iMac colors
Those iMac colors are too fruity! I want graphite!: Graphite G4 and iMac II
When I look back just a couple years, it's amazing how far this company has come. I think it's response to the current state of computing in all areas of society (and clever marketing) has really been what's turned Apple around. I just hope they stay with this mindset...
Ok, so I own a G3, have always used Macs, and was interested in reading this article. But what the hell was your point? That somehow the G4 is the "second coming" of Apple? I think you're jumping the gun here. While the G4 is incredibly cool, this box isn't going to become the supreme power in the universe. It's just a computer (and a pretty fast one at that), and something else will come along in a couple months that claims to be faster than the G4. Are you going to then write an article about that box claiming it's the second coming for [insert company here]?
I can't see this as being anything but vaporware. From the other sites I've been reading on this, it's sounds as if X-Box (the system we're all talking about here) is just one of many console ideas Microsoft has come up with for possible introduction into the home. I doubt they could release something that directly competes with Dreamcast when they are partnering with Sega. Thus, it seems this is one of those set top, do everything, boxes that will never see the light of day. Anyone recall that Pippin box that Apple and Bandai were going to bring out a year or two ago? I'll bet $50 that X-Box turns out to be a similar product, that will unfortunatly have a similar demise.
;)
With that said, let's look at the flip side of this...if this thing does come out, do you think Microsoft is actually gonna be able to compete with Sega, Sony and Nintendo? I doubut it. First of all, where are the games? What 3rd party developers are going to write for the system? I don't care how much money MS has, they aren't gonna take away Square from Sony, or Mario from Nintendo, or all those arcade games away from Sega. But hey, I guess it's not that bad, at least there will be a really good console version of Age of Empires!
I have my threshold set to 2. Why? Because lately, I don't have time to wade through 300 posts, especially the toll ones, or those of us who are registered who respond to the trolls' nonsense. I also have less time to read slashdot than before. For those of us on the move, reading the top 25 posts out of 300 does wonders. You always get the best comments out of whatever topic interests you.
With that said, I think Rob has done well with his decision. I didn't read the thread that made him do this (yet) but I did read one about a week or two back that was just as bad (somebody saying Windows was the best, etc, etc over and over). And I only saw that because someone who had score of 2 had said something about all the off topic posts. I'm glad we all have a choice to view what we want, but when people just keep posting crap, over and over, it just reminds me of when Usenet went to shit way back when.
We all have to remember though, this is Rob's site, he can be as hard or easy on anyone as he wants, and he should have that right. He's the one who's put in the hours and hours of hard work for all of us. And I for one would like to thank him for making the net a better place, regardless of how many "bad apples" are out there.
Having spent the last 22 years in Green Bay I must say that this kid should be put away. He's ruining our city's reputation as technically illiterate folk who only drink beer, eat brats, and watch anything and everything Packer related.
Seriously though, this surprised me when I heard this on the news. We're not a very technical town at all, and I'm sure now half the population of Green Bay (both of them) will be all worried that this kid (or someone else) is gonna hack into their computer while they're tying in Word. The ISP's in Green Bay don't help the cause any either. But hey, at least we have our Packers!
It's like this with anything. There sure are a lot more visits to Radio Shack stores than Mom & Pop's Electronics. As brands grow online, it should have the same effect as the Wal-Mart's and Old Navy's of the world. The little man will be crushed. This trend also reaches into news and personal sites. For example, some people have the attitude, "Slashdot has it all, why go anywhere else?" It would be hard for someone like me, for instance, to compete with the popularity of this site. Personal sites like The Fray that are popular could almost be considered the "upper class" of people on the web, where as Geocities could be considered the Internet Ghetto. I think we're seeing the internet take on a life of it's own, and because it has, it's playing by the same rules we play by in real life.